We the People Death Star reaches 25,000 signatures

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With the fiscal cliff looming in less than three weeks, the defense budget is on the chopping block. NASA's funding has already been slashed and its highest-profile program of the past several decades--the space shuttle--is gone.

But one enterprising American, John D. of Longmont, Colo., has proposed what he suggests could be the solution to the defense budget conundrum: the construction of a Death Star.

John D writes:

We the people petitions have one month to a achieve a threshold of 25,000 signatures, and John's hit its goal with a day to spare.

As much as science fiction nerds of all stripes might love to see a Death Star come into reality, the likelihood that the government will build a superweapon the size of the moon is unfortunately nil.

So how might the White House reply?

A handful of similarly unlikely, bordering on absurd, petitions have made it past the 25,000 threshold.

A slew of state secession requests cropped up after President Obama won reelection, including one for Texas that garnered almost 120,000 signatures, and one that pressed for Obama's impeachment that pulled in more than 40,000 signatures.

Neither of those--nor one that suggested the U.S. deport anyone who signed the various petitions to secede--earned an official response.

In fact, the White House doesn't seem to have much humor about any of the petitions, no matter how ridiculous, but there are exceptions.

Citizens successfully convinced the administration to publish the recipe for the White House kitchen home-brewed beer after the president was spotted handing out bottles on the campaign trail.

Another pressed the White House to "formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race" and though it got an official response, no big ET reveal was forthcoming.

They also sometimes just decline to comment.

Still, we can always hope they'll have something good to say about the potential construction of a superweapon (hopefully without a thermal exhaust port vulnerable to X-wing attack).